Generating advertisements from electronic communications

ABSTRACT

Techniques involving the creation of advertisements from electronic communications. In one embodiment, a determination is made that a received email includes advertisement information. Elements of the email that can be used in an electronic advertisement are identified, and the electronic advertisement is created using at least the identified elements of the email.

BACKGROUND

With the advent of global networks and associated electroniccommunications, marketing has made a significant evolution from largelypaper-based advertisements and solicitations to electronic counterparts.Today, electronic mail or “email” has become one of the best mediums foran advertiser to locate a desired audience for advertisement andsolicitations. The advertiser may be aware of email addresses in whichto send email, and the advertiser can embed graphics and otherinformation into these emails. Delivering a commercial email cantheoretically have a high return on investment, as the user may beeffectively forced to read through the email subject line-by-subjectline before taking action on the email.

However, users may ultimately delete or disregard apparentadvertisements or solicitations received via email, and never view thecontent associated with them. Email recipients can at times feelinundated with communications, and advertising emails may be disregardedif only for reasons of expediency. These and other factors can adverselyimpact the return on investment for any advertisement or othersolicitation.

SUMMARY

Techniques involving the creation of advertisements from electroniccommunications. One representative technique includes computer-readablemedia having instructions stored thereon which are executable by acomputer system. The executable instructions can enable a determinationto be made that a received electronic communication includesadvertisement information. Elements of the electronic communication thatmay be used in an electronic advertisement can be identified, and theelectronic advertisement can be created using at least the identifiedelements of the electronic communication.

In another representative embodiment, an apparatus is provided thatincludes at least a receiver, an analyzer module, and an advertisementcreation module. The receiver is configured to receive an electronicmessage addressed to a targeted recipient. The analyzer module isconfigured to receive the electronic message, and to determine whetherthe electronic message communicates information that can be formulatedinto an electronic advertisement. An advertisement creation module isconfigured to receive the information, and to create the electronicadvertisement using at least that information.

In another embodiment, a computer-implemented method is provided thatincludes receiving an email addressed for a targeted device. At leastsome of the data in the email is analyzed to determine whether itincludes data expressly indicating that it is an advertising emailincluding advertising information. Advertising content is parsed fromthe email if it is determined to be an advertising email. An electronicadvertisement is created using at least the advertising content from theemail. The resulting created electronic advertisement(s) may bepresented via the targeted device.

This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in asimplified form that are further described below in the DetailedDescription. This Summary is not intended to identify key features oressential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended tobe used to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram generally illustrating a representative mannerfor presenting commercial email or other communicated solicitations asadvertisements;

FIG. 2 is a flow diagram generally illustrating one embodiment forutilizing emails or other electronic messages as basis information forcreating one or more advertisements to present to the user;

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram illustrating an embodiment for creating andpresenting advertisements to users based on incoming electronicmessages;

FIG. 4 diagrammatically illustrates various features associated with thegeneration and presentation of advertisements based on incoming emailadvertisements;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating representative systems that canprocess emails and other electronic messages to determine if they areadvertising messages, create advertisements therefrom, present thecreated advertisements, and/or other functions described herein;

FIGS. 6A, 6B and 6C depict various representative examples ofapparatuses that facilitate the creation of the electronicadvertisements as described herein;

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram illustrating a representative method where auser device receives an email that is configured to explicitly identifyit as an advertising email, and the resulting advertisement is presentedvia the user device;

FIG. 8 depicts a representative computing system in which the principlesdescribed herein may be implemented.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following description, reference is made to the accompanyingdrawings that depict representative implementation examples. It is to beunderstood that other embodiments and implementations may be utilized,as structural and/or operational changes may be made without departingfrom the scope of the disclosure.

The disclosure is generally directed to electronically presentedadvertisements. Among other things, the disclosure describesrepresentative manners in which communicated digital information, suchas electronic mail (email) and other electronic communication, mayprovide information from which advertisements may be derived. Thecreated or otherwise derived advertisements may be presented via theuser device(s) that receives the electronic communication. Advertiserscan target user devices to which the advertisers have appropriatecontact information, such as email addresses, text message number, etc.,and provide information in the electronic communication from which theadvertisements can be created or otherwise obtained for presentation.

The disclosure presents representative manners in which sources ofadvertisements may direct advertisement information to targetedrecipients, while facilitating presentation of a resulting advertisementin a form different to, and/or in addition to, the form of theadvertisement information in the communicated message. Electronicallycommunicated messages, such as, for example, email, text messages, andmultimedia messages, are popular mediums for advertisers to find adesired audience. While advertisers may send email advertisements totargeted recipients, the recipient would ultimately have to see theemail in an inbox or other repository, and open the email to view theadvertisement. Typically, the recipient will read through a list ofreceived emails, viewing each subject line-by-line, and decide whetherto read, delete, move, store or otherwise manage the email. The presentdisclosure provides manners for reinterpreting transmittedadvertisements and other commercial email, and presenting them to theuser as advertisements in a typical advertisement unit or other desiredarea.

In one embodiment, the received email may never need to be presented tothe user, resulting in an email inbox having fewer emails for the userto parse through, while still enabling the commercial messaging to bepresented as advertisements in a given advertisement space. Alsodescribed herein are representative manners for parsing out informationrelating to the email or other communicated message, and dynamicallyconstructing an advertisement. As described through representativeexamples below, advertisements may be created from information expresslyplaced in the email or other digital communication to create theadvertisement, or inherently by reviewing information normally providedin the email or other communication.

For example, FIG. 1 is a block diagram generally illustrating arepresentative manner for presenting commercial email or othercommunicated solicitations as advertisements. A source 100 of theadvertisement (“ad”) may be an individual, company, email marketingservice provider, or any entity capable of communicating email or otherelectronic communication to addressable recipients. In the illustratedembodiment, the source 100 communicates one or more addressableelectronic communications 102 to one or more recipient devices depictedin FIG. 1 as user devices 104A/104B. The addressable electroniccommunications 102 may include, for example, email, text or mediamessages, or any other type of electronic message that may be receivedby a user device 104A/104B.

In one embodiment, the user device 104A/104B represents any device usedto receive the addressable electronic communication 102. For example,the user device 104A/104B may represent a desktop computer, laptop orother portable computer, mobile phone or other mobile communicationdevice, personal digital assistant (PDA), or any other electronic devicecapable of being configured to receive emails and/or other electroniccommunications.

The disclosure describes representative manners in which email and otherelectronic communications may provide information from whichadvertisements targeted for user devices 104A/104B may be created. Thecreated advertisements may be presented via the user device 104A/104Bthat receives the email. To facilitate the creation of advertisementsfrom received emails, an advertisement preparation module 106 isprovided. The advertisement preparation module 106 may be provided aspart of an end user device 104A, such as being implemented in a desktopcomputing device having an email client configured to at least receiveemails. Another example would be a computing device or mobile phoneconfigured to receive text messages. As depicted by user device 104A,the advertisement preparation module 106 may be implemented as part ofthe same user device 104A that is receiving the email or otheraddressable electronic communication 102.

In another embodiment, the advertisement preparation module 106 may beprovided as part of an intermediate device, server or othercomputing/communication device. For example, the advertisementpreparation module 106 may be implemented in a mail server 108, or othermessage server or message transfer agent that is logically positionedbetween the source 100 and the targeted user device 104B of theelectronic communication 102. The mail server 108 can assist in thedelivery of the electronic communication 102 from the source 100 to theuser device 104B. As described more fully below, the advertisementpreparation module 106 may be located with these or other devices.

In the illustrated embodiment, the advertisement preparation module 106includes an electronic communication analyzation module 110, and anadvertisement creation module 112. electronic communication analyzationmodule 110 represents a module capable of receiving the email or otherelectronic communication/message, and determining whether the electroniccommunication is a communication relating to advertising. As describedbelow, this determination may be made by analyzing information providedin an email or other message that expressly indicates that advertisinginformation is provided therein. Alternatively, this determination maybe made by analyzing the email or other communication to infer that itis an advertisement.

Information obtained from the email or other message may be used tocreate an advertisement(s) based on the information provided in theemail. In FIG. 1, the advertisement creation module 112 creates anadvertisement(s) from the information obtained via the electroniccommunication analyzation module 110. The advertisement(s) may then bepresented via a user device 104A/104B in any desired manner, such aswithin the email itself, outside of the email but within the emailclient, on a web/Internet page, on a local intranet page, in anotherclient program, etc.

The embodiment of FIG. 1 enables, among other things, one or moreadvertisements to be presented in lieu of, or in addition to, an emailor other message that provides advertising information. For example, auser device may receive an email, which includes information that isconverted to an advertisement. The resulting advertisement(s) may bepresented via the user device in a typical ad unit or other location.Among other things, this enables advertisements to be presented to auser, even if the email providing the advertising information is notopened by the user in some embodiments.

FIG. 2 is a flow diagram generally illustrating one embodiment forutilizing emails or other electronic messages as basis information forcreating one or more advertisements to present to the user. Theembodiment of FIG. 2 generally provides the ability to expressly orinferentially detect core elements of an email or other electronicmessage, and use those detected elements to create an advertisement.Particularly, an addressable electronic communication is received asdepicted at block 200. As previously noted, the addressable electroniccommunication may be an email, text message, or other electronic messagethat can be communicated to a particular user(s). If the received emailor other electronic communication does not meet criteria in which anadvertisement is to be created, as determined at decision block 202, anadvertisement will not be created as depicted at block 204. In oneembodiment, determining whether the received electronic communicationmeets criteria involves determining whether the received electroniccommunication includes a solicitation or invitation to consider acommercial product or service, although the criteria can be for anysolicitation (e.g. donation request, survey request, etc.)

On the other hand, if the electronic communication includes informationthat meets the criteria as determined at block 202, then elements ofthat receives communication that may be used in an ultimateadvertisement are identified at block 206. For example, electroniccommunication may be parsed to identify content provided in the body ofthe email, an attachment of the email, or elsewhere. Using theidentified elements of the received electronic communication, theadvertisement may be created as shown at block 208. In one embodiment,the advertisement may be created at the local device that receives theemail. In another embodiment, the advertisement may be created at a mailserver or other intermediate device on the path from the email source tothe user device. In yet another embodiment, the identified elements ofthe receives communication may be transmitted to a device, server,advertising service, or other computing device to create and return theadvertisement(s) to the user device.

Ultimately, the created advertisement may be presented to the user asshown at block 210. The advertisement may be presented by way of thedevice in which user receives electronic communications, or even via aseparate electronic device of the user. For example, if properlyconfigured, the user could receive the email at a first device (e.g.work computer), and the created advertisement could be transmitted to asecond device (e.g. home computer, mobile phone, etc.). Thus, in oneembodiment, the user is allowed to designate another address (e.g. emailaddress, IP address, personal web page, etc.) where createdadvertisements are presented. In other embodiments, createdadvertisements are presented in one or more locations, applications,devices, etc., without user involvement. It should be noted thatpresenting the advertisement may include visually displaying theadvertisement and/or audibly presenting the advertisement.

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram illustrating an embodiment for creating andpresenting advertisements to users based on incoming electronicmessages. In the example of FIG. 3, it is assumed that the electronicmessages are email communications. It should also be noted that somefeatures of FIG. 3 may be performed at a mail server or otherintermediate device, or alternatively all features may be performed atthe local device that receives the email.

At block 300, an email is received. In one embodiment, the email may beparsed as shown at block 302 to identify various parts of the emailwhich can then be analyzed at block 304. For example, the email may beparsed at block 302 to identify the header, header fields, email body,metadata, or other information obtainable from the email. Alternatively,email may be analyzed in its entirety.

In one embodiment, information may be explicitly declared in the emailto indicate that the email is to be used in the creation of anadvertisement, as depicted by the explicit block 306. For example, thesender or other source of the email may include information thatidentifies advertisement data, images, target audience, and/or otherinformation that may be recognized when analyzed at block 304. Thisinformation may include one or both of the information to enable it tobe identified as an advertisement, as well as some or all of theadvertisement content itself. In such an embodiment, the email isanalyzed at block 304 to determine whether the email is an advertisementby reviewing metadata or other information that was explicitly placed inthe email. This information may be provided in various manners, such asby way of the email header 308, by way of a Multipurpose Internet MailExtensions (MIME) type 310, metadata such as that provided via HyperTextMarkup Language (HTML), Extensible Markup Language (XML) tags, or thelike.

More particularly, advertisement content and/or information identifyingthe email as an advertisement (hereinafter advertisement information)may be placed in the header 308 in newly created header fields, unusedexisting header fields, etc. In another embodiment, a new MIME type 310may be included in the email to provide a body of text or other contentto provide the advertisement information. It should be recognized thatwhile a MIME type 310 is used in the example of FIG. 3, any similaremail and/or email extension message formatting specification or modelmay be similarly used. The MIME type 310 is used in the present examplesimply due to its prolific use in current email technologies.

Thus, a new MIME (or analogous) type 310 may be created to deliberatelyinclude the advertisement information. A module configured to analyzethe email to determine whether it is an advertisement, such as shown atblock 304, will recognize the particular MIME type(s) 310 and obtain theadvertisement information. Other recipients of the email that may not beconfigured to perform the analysis of the emails and creation ofadvertisements can simply ignore the information associated with theMIME type 310.

Yet another representative manner in which advertisement information maybe provided in the email is to add the advertising information into thebody of the page as some sort of metadata 312. For example, theadvertisement information could be added as metadata 312 by usingotherwise unrecognized HTML tags. This could also be accomplished usingother markup languages such as XML, or any other manner of annotatinginformation in an email or other message. The advertisement informationcould be associated with tags or other identifiers that are recognizedby the module configured to analyze 304 the email, while other emailclients, browsers, and other applications receiving the email couldsimply ignore or disregard those tags.

In one embodiment, the body of the email may include some or all of theadvertisement content itself In such an embodiment, the header 308, MIMEtype 310, metadata 312 and/or other mechanism may be used to provide theinformation that explicitly identifies the incoming email as anadvertisement email to which an advertisement(s) is to be generated. Inother embodiments, any one or more of the header 308, MIME type 310,metadata 312 or other mechanism may also be used to provide some or allof the advertising content that will ultimately be used to create theadvertisement.

In the example of FIG. 3, another representative manner in which theemail may be analyzed 304 to determine whether it is an advertisement isdepicted. Particularly, whether an incoming email is deemed anadvertisement email from which an advertisement will be created isinferred from content in the email. This is depicted at block 314 ofFIG. 3. In this embodiment, any one or more factors may be processed byone or more algorithms 316 to inferentially determine whether anadvertisement will be created from an incoming email. Box 314illustrates numerous representative factors that may be considered indetermining whether the incoming email is deemed an advertisement emailfrom which an advertisement will be created. These factors are merelyrepresentative, and do not represent an exhaustive list. For example,information in an email such as product brand names, service names,product names, certain words in the subject line and/or body (e.g.“sale,” credit card or other payment names, “order,” etc.), images,price information, legal disclaimers typically associated with emailadvertising, etc. In one embodiment, identifiers may be provided intitle or heading tags (e.g. H1, H2, etc., for HTML) or in connectionwith other designated tags or fields. Using any one or more of theseand/or other factors, an algorithm(s) may weigh the various factors andultimately determine whether or not the particular email is deemed acommercial email, advertisement, or other solicitation.

In the event that it is determined at block 304 that a given email meetscriteria suggesting that it is a commercial email, advertisement,solicitation, etc., then an advertisement may be derived frominformation in the email as shown at block 320. Deriving theadvertisement may involve creating the advertisement (ad) as shown atblock 322. Other manners of deriving the advertisement from theinformation provided in the email may also be implemented, such asproviding some or all of the information obtained from the email to anadvertisement generation service elsewhere within the device or remotefrom the device. More particularly, one embodiment may involve a mailserver analyzing the email to determine whether the email is anadvertisement at block 304, where the mail server then accesses anadvertisement platform via a link 324, or otherwise requests that theadvertisement be created at the remote advertisement platform.

In one embodiment, information in the advertisement email includessufficient information from which the advertisement may be created. Forexample, an advertisement may already be created within the content ofthe email, and therefore creation of the advertisement at block 322involves obtaining the advertisement from the email. As another example,metadata or other information may be presented in the email such as thetext for the ad, the size of the graphic display (e.g. A×B pixels), andso forth. In one embodiment, different advertisements may be created fordifferent groups of recipients of the email. For example, for userscategorized in one way (e.g. age group), a first advertisement may becreated from the received email information, and for users categorizedin a second way, a different advertisement may be created from thereceived email information. Thus, in one embodiment, creating theelectronic advertisement includes creating more than one format for theelectronic advertisement, and presenting the electronic advertisement inat least one of the multiple formats based on a category of the targetedrecipient of the electronic communication.

At block 326, the advertisement is presented. The advertisement may bepresented to the user in any number of ways. For example, the ad may bepresented directly within the email as shown at block 328. As a moreparticular example, in an embodiment where the incoming email isretained and opened, the advertisement may be presented in the openemail itself The ad may be presented along the top, bottom or side(s) ofthe viewed body of the email, or may float within the email, etc. the admay alternatively or additionally be displayed outside of the emailbody, such as near menu information, header information, status bars,etc. In another embodiment, the ad may be presented outside of the emailitself, but within the email client where emails are viewed. The ad maybe presented in any location within the email client, such as by way ofa banner ad or other known ad as depicted at block 330.

As another example, the created advertisement(s) may be presented via awebsite 332 or other program 334. For example, a user may have login toa particular website that is affiliated with or otherwise capable ofcommunicating with a mail server that serves emails to the user. In oneexample, a mail server may create the advertisement as shown at block322, and then may present that created advertisement(s) on the websiteto which the user has logged on. In this manner, advertisements directedto a particular user may be presented to the user via another venue. Asanother example, a mail server or local client that creates theadvertisement, or otherwise manages a created advertisement, can presentthe created advertisement in another program or elsewhere on the userdevice. For example, an advertisement may be locally created at a userdevice such as a desktop computer, where the created advertisement isdisplayed on the user's computer desktop, another application or programsuch as a web browser, word processing application, etc. The examplesdescribed in connection with block 326 illustrate representativeexamples of where advertisements that have been created from incomingemails may be presented, although numerous other manners may be used inconnection with the disclosure.

In one embodiment, the creation and presentation of an advertisementfrom an incoming email does not impact the email from which theadvertisement was created. As shown at block 340, the original email mayremain intact. For example, the user may find, open, read, move, deleteand/or perform any other action with the incoming email that couldotherwise be performed. In another embodiment, the original email ismodified in some manner as depicted at block 342. For example, the emailmay be removed from the user's inbox or otherwise deleted as shown atblock 344. In one embodiment, the email is deleted in connection withthe creation of the electronic advertisement. For example, whether priorto, contemporaneously with, or after creation of the electronicadvertisement, the source email may be deleted since the generatedelectronic advertisement can effectively take its place. In such cases,the incoming email that included advertisement information is usedlargely as a vehicle to reach the targeted recipients, with certainadvertising information from which an advertisement may be created. Asthe advertisement is created and presented to the user, there may be noneed to retain the email or even present the email to the user. In suchinstances, the email's purpose is to distribute an advertisement, andmay thereafter simply be removed from the user's inbox, or deleted at anupstream mail server before being delivered to the user.

In the case where a mail server or other intermediary device directsincoming emails to the users email client, the mail server itself maydelete the email without ever delivering it to the user's email client.In such an embodiment, the mail server may provide the advertisementinformation from the email, or the email itself, to an advertisementplatform or other service to create and present the resultingadvertisement(s) to the user. Alternatively, an advertisement creationmodule at the mail server may create the advertisement from the email,and present the ad to the user via a website or other application towhich the mail server is affiliated or can otherwise communicate with.

Block 342 also illustrates other manners in which the original email maybe modified. The email may simply be hidden 346 from the user at theusers email client, such that it is received but not presented to theuser. In such an embodiment, a processor or other module may beconfigured to delete the email once the advertisement has been createdtherefrom. In yet another embodiment, the incoming email from which theadvertisement is created may be moved to a particular inbox or inboxdirectory, storage directory, electronic trash bin, etc. The examplesassociated with block 342 are provided merely as representativeexamples, as any type of modification of the email may be configured foruse with the present disclosure.

FIG. 4 diagrammatically illustrates various features associated with thegeneration and presentation of advertisements based on incoming emailadvertisements. In this example, an incoming email is depicted by mailenvelope 400 which is shown in greater detail by email message 402 whichis what is viewed by the user. The message 402 may include viewableheader information 404, such as a subject, identifications of who theemail is from and directed to, etc. The presented email 402 may includea message body 406, which may include any one or more of items such astext 408, images/media 410, links 412, etc. Email information 414 is anexample of the information that makes up the presented email 402, whichmay include header information, body, etc. The header may include MIMEtype tags or similar tags. As previously noted, a new MIME type(s) maybe used to identify that the email information 414 includes advertisinginformation from which an advertisement may be created. Other data ormetadata may be included anywhere in the email information 414.

FIG. 4 depicts some representative modules that may be implemented inhardware or programmable hardware, such as one or more programmedprocessors. The analyzer module 420 may be implemented using, forexample, a processor programmed with instructions to analyze anddetermine whether an incoming email 400 includes ad information 422. Theanalyzer module 420 may parse the email information 414 to locateindicators that expressly or implicitly indicate the email is anadvertisement email, and also to locate advertising content in the emailinformation 414. The analyzer module 420 may initiate the analysis inconnection with any desired trigger, such as when the email is receivedin a user's inbox (e.g. a local email client's inbox), when the email isopened or otherwise viewed, when a mail server receives the email, etc.

As noted above, the indicators that identify the email as havingadvertisement information may be explicit or inferred indicators.Regarding explicit indicators, a determination of whether an incomingemail 400 includes ad information may be made by analyzing explicitinformation 424 provided with the email information 414. Such explicitinformation 424 may include one or more designators in the email header,body, or elsewhere to indicate that the incoming email includesadvertising information. For example, XML or HTML formatting could beused to essentially declare the email as an advertising email. Referenceinformation may be stored, such as in storage 425, to be compared usinga compare module 428 to information in the email that may explicitlydesignate it as an advertising email.

Alternatively, email information 414 can be analyzed by the analyzer 420to infer that an incoming email 400 includes advertising information tobe converted into an advertisement(s). For example, metadata,information in the body or header of the email information 414 can beanalyzed by the analyzer module 420 to infer that an incoming email 400is an advertisement email. Certain terms, phrases, numbers, symbols,etc. may be obtained from the email information 414, and the comparemodule 428 may compare the inferred information 426 to referenceinformation stored in the storage 425.

In the event that the analyzer module 420 explicitly or inferentiallydeems the incoming email 400 to be in advertising email, informationprovided by way of the email is provided to the ad creation module 430.This information, depicted as the ad information 422, may include text,images, video, and/or other content that will be used in the creation ofan advertisement. In one embodiment, creation of an ad via the adcreation module 430 may be accomplished by taking at least some of theelements detected or obtained by the analyzer module 420 and, dependingon which elements are present, filling in a template with the content.Thus, the ad creation module 430 may use the ad information 422 tocreate the advertisement, and provide the resulting advertisement to thead placement module 432. In other embodiments, the ad information 422may include a link(s) to content elsewhere that may be used in thecreation of the advertisement.

The ad placement module 432 represents the module that determines wherethe resulting advertisement should be positioned and/or is responsiblefor introducing the resulting advertisement at the determined position.The resulting placement/position information 434 may place theadvertisements within the advertising email itself This is depicted atemail 436, where two advertisements 438, 439 that were created from theoriginal advertising email 400 are presented in the email 436. An emailclient 442 or other user agent may facilitate viewing of the email 443.In this embodiment, the ads 444, 446 are presented outside of the email443, yet within the email application. In still another representativeexample, the advertisement may be placed in a different window, program,or even user device. For example, FIG. 4 illustrates a computerapplication 448, such as a web browser page, where the resultingadvertisement 450 is presented. The created advertisements may be placedwherever desired. The representative emails 436, email clients 442,application 448 or other area for displaying the resultingadvertisements may be visually presented on a display of the userdevice.

The created advertisement may display or otherwise present informationthat the viewer can see, hear, etc. Selecting the created advertisementmay reveal information such as coupons. In one embodiment, selecting thecreated advertisement operates as a link to at least one other location,such as the advertiser's website. In yet another embodiment, selectingthe created advertisement provides a link to the advertising email fromwhich the advertisement was created. Thus, selecting the advertisementmay link back to open up the email that caused creation of the ad. Thismay be used where the space for an advertisement is limited relative tothe space available in an email to provide the advertising information.Therefore, since the advertisement may be created from the incomingemail before the user has opened the email or is even aware of theemail, one embodiment involves opening the email when the createdadvertisement is selected (e.g. “clicked on”).

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating representative systems that canprocess emails and other electronic messages to determine if they areadvertising messages, create advertisements therefrom, present thecreated advertisements, and/or other functions described herein. In theexample of FIG. 5, it is assumed that electronic message 500 isaddressed to the user device 504. The electronic message 500 mayrepresent an email, a text message, a multimedia message, or otherelectronic message that can be targeted for the user device 504.Assuming for purposes of example that the electronic message 500represents an email, the email may be routed to the user device 504 byway of one or more electronic mail servers 502. In one embodiment, theuser device 504 receives the email via the electronic message client506, which in this example represents an email client. The electronicmessage client 506 may be a locally-stored email application, aweb-based or other network-supplied email application, etc. Theelectronic message client 506 or other designated program(s) 508 maylocally process the incoming email by analyzing it to determine if it isan advertising email, creating an advertisement therefrom, directing thecreated advertisement to an appropriate place for viewing by the user,etc. This is depicted by the advertisement 510A provided by theelectronic message client 506 and/or other program(s) 508. Such anadvertisement 510A may be presented as part of the electronic messageclient 506, part of another program 508, etc.

In another embodiment, at least some of the functions described hereinare handled at the electronic mail server 502. For example, electronicmail server 502 may receive the email or other electronic message 500,and analyze it to determine whether it is an advertising email beforeever providing the email to the user device 504. Alternatively, the mailserver 502 may analyze the incoming email to determine whether it is anadvertising email while also delivering the email to the user device504. In such cases, the mail server 502 may use information from theincoming email targeted for the user device 504 in order to create anadvertisement 510B. The advertisement 510B may then be viewed via theuser device 504 by way of some program 508, which could include theelectronic message client 506 as well. In one embodiment, theadvertisement 510B may be provided to a program 508 such as, forexample, a web-based email application used by the user device 504.

In yet another embodiment, the electronic mail server 502 may providethe email, or information parsed from the email, or a createdadvertisement to an advertising (ad) server or platform 512. The adplatform 512 may be used to introduce advertisements 510C into the userdevice's 504 computing experience. For example, the ad platform 512 mayintroduce advertisements 510C into web pages viewed by the user of thedevice 504, or other programs that may include an ad unit in whichadvertisements may be presented. As depicted in FIG. 5, an ad platform512 may be configured to directly receive the electronic message 500 (ora duplicate of the electronic message sent to the mail server 502) inorder to analyze the email and create the advertisement 510C. Inembodiments where the electronic message 500 is provided to a mailserver 502, ad platform 512, or other intermediary device, the originalelectronic message 500 may or may not ultimately be delivered to theuser device 504. In other words, in some embodiments the electronicmessage 500 is used as a means to provide the advertisement informationto an intermediary device (e.g. mail server 502, ad platform 512, etc.)in order to ultimately create an advertisement therefrom.

In one particular example, a user may utilize a browser or other program508 to reach a web-based email application. When logging in to such awebsite, the user may first be brought to a home page for that website,from which the user can click or otherwise select to be directed to theweb-based email inbox. In such an example, the ad platform 512 or otherentity responsible for placing advertisements on that web-based homepage (or other page at that site) can obtain or create an advertisementfrom the email information, and present the ad on that home page orother page. In this manner, the user may be presented with an ad from anemail directed to him/her, while potentially being unaware that theemail is even in his/her inbox. In one embodiment, selecting the ad maybring the user to the advertisement email that initiated creation of theadvertisement in the first place. This concept may apply to any“upstream” website. For example, where a first website includes a linkto, or is otherwise affiliated with, a second site (such as to aweb-based email application), the advertisement may be presented at thefirst website. If the user clicks on or otherwise selects the ad fromthe first website, the email at the second site may be presented to theuser.

Another embodiment recognizes that electronic messages 500 may come innumerous forms. In addition to email, other electronic messages such astext messages, multimedia messages or other addressable electronicmessages may be targeted to a user device 504. In one embodiment, it isassumed that the electronic message 500 represents, for example, a textmessage (e.g. short message service or “SMS” message) that may be sentin a mobile telephone network that delivers text messages. The textmessage may be received by a short message service center (SMSC) 514 orother network element in the mobile network that delivers text messages.An analyzing module and a creation module may be provided at the SMSC514 or other network element that ultimately creates an advertisement510D that can be provided to the user device 504 or presented to theuser in other manners (e.g. providing to a website to which the user ofdevice 504 is, or can, log onto). The text message may include theinformation to be used in the creation of the advertisement 510D, or itmay include a link(s) or other address where the appropriateadvertisement may be retrieved. In this manner, an addressableelectronic message 500 represented by a text message may be used as thevehicle in which to initiate the creation and ultimate placement of anadvertisement 510D. It should be noted that other similar messagingtechnologies such as multimedia mess aging service (MMS) may similarlybe used to ultimately create an advertisement as described herein. Itshould also be recognized that the user device 504 may be a desktopcomputing device, portable computing device, smart phone or other mobiledevice, etc.

As noted in connection with FIG. 5, various entities may receive andprocess the email or other electronic message. FIGS. 6A, 6B and 6Cdepict various representative examples of apparatuses that facilitatethe creation of the electronic advertisements as described herein. Likereference numbers are used in FIGS. 6A, 6B and 6C for correspondingmodules.

In the embodiment of FIG. 6A, the responsible apparatus includes atleast a receiver 600, an analyzer module 602, and an advertisementcreation module 604. The receiver 600 is configured to receive anelectronic message (e.g. email, text message, etc.) addressed to atargeted recipient. The analyzer module 602 is configured to receive theelectronic message, and determine whether it communicates informationthat can be formulated into an electronic advertisement. If theelectronic message included that information, the advertisement creationmodule 604 uses at least that information to create the electronicadvertisement.

In the embodiment of FIG. 6B, the receiver 600, analyzer module 602 andadvertisement creation module 604 are implemented at a user device 610of the targeted recipient. The user device may further include anadvertisement placement module 606 that is configured to cause theelectronic advertisement to be presented via the user device 610. Suchpresentation may include one or more of displaying the electronicadvertisement via a display, audibly reading the electronicadvertisement via speakers, etc.

In the embodiment of FIG. 6B, the receiver 600, analyzer module 602 andadvertisement creation module 604 are implemented at a message server620 (e.g. mail server, SMSC, etc.) in a communication path between asource of the electronic message and a user device of the targetedrecipient. In one embodiment, the mail server 620 further includes atransmitter 608 configured to transmit the electronic advertisement tothe user device. The examples of FIG. 6A-6C are merely representative,as various other configurations may also be implemented in accordancewith the disclosure.

One embodiment involves performing operations according to thedisclosure at the device that receives an email. For example, an emailapplication may be configured to create the advertisement from anincoming email. FIG. 7 is a flow diagram illustrating an example wherethe message transmitted is an email, the device performing theoperations is the user device that receives the email, the email isconfigured to explicitly identify it as an advertising email, and theresulting advertisement is presented via the user device. Moreparticularly, the representative method includes receiving an emailaddressed for a targeted device, which in turn analyzes at least some ofthe data in the email to determine whether it includes data expresslyindicating that it is an advertising email that includes advertisinginformation. Advertising content is parsed from the email if the emailis determined to be an advertising email, and the electronicadvertisement is created using at least the advertising content from theemail. The created electronic advertisement may be presented via thetargeted device.

FIG. 8 depicts a representative computing system 800 in which theprinciples described herein may be implemented. The representativecomputing system 800 can represent either a user/client device or aserver (e.g. mail server, SMSC, etc.), with differences noted below. Thecomputing environment described in connection with FIG. 8 is describedfor purposes of example, as the structural and operational disclosurefor facilitating the creation of electronic advertisements from emailsis applicable in any environment in which applications can be executed.It should also be noted that the computing arrangement of FIG. 8 may, insome embodiments, be distributed across multiple devices.

For both client devices and servers, the representative computing system800 may include a processor 802 coupled to numerous modules via a systembus 804. The depicted system bus 804 represents any type of busstructure(s) that may be directly or indirectly coupled to the variouscomponents and modules of the computing environment. A read only memory(ROM) 806 may be provided to store firmware used by the processor 802.The ROM 806 represents any type of read-only memory, such asprogrammable ROM (PROM), erasable PROM (EPROM), or the like.

The host or system bus 804 may be coupled to a memory controller 814,which in turn is coupled to the memory 812 via a memory bus 816. Theoperational modules associated with the advertisement creation describedherein may be stored in and/or utilize any storage, including volatilestorage such as memory 812, as well as non-volatile storage devices.FIG. 8 illustrates various other representative storage devices in whichapplications, modules, data and other information may be temporarily orpermanently stored. For example, the system bus may be coupled to aninternal storage interface 830, which can be coupled to a drive(s) 832such as a hard drive. Storage 834 is associated with or otherwiseoperable with the drives. Examples of such storage include hard disksand other magnetic or optical media, flash memory and other solid-statedevices, etc. The internal storage interface 830 may utilize any type ofvolatile or non-volatile storage.

Similarly, an interface 836 for removable media may also be coupled tothe bus 804. Drives 838 may be coupled to the removable storageinterface 836 to accept and act on removable storage 840 such as, forexample, floppy disks, optical disks, memory cards, flash memory,external hard disks, etc. In some cases, a host adaptor 842 may beprovided to access external storage 844. For example, the host adaptor842 may interface with external storage devices via small computersystem interface (SCSI), Fibre Channel, serial advanced technologyattachment (SATA) or eSATA, and/or other analogous interfaces capable ofconnecting to external storage 844. By way of a network interface 846,still other remote storage may be accessible to the computing system800. For example, wired and wireless transceivers associated with thenetwork interface 846 enable communications with storage devices 848through one or more networks 850. Storage devices 848 may representdiscrete storage devices, or storage associated with another computingsystem, server, etc. Communications with remote storage devices andsystems may be accomplished via wired local area networks (LANs),wireless LANs, and/or larger networks including global area networks(GANs) such as the Internet.

A local email or other messaging client and a server device communicateinformation, such as emails, advertising information and/or createdadvertisements. Communications between user devices and server devicescan be effected by direct wiring, peer-to-peer networks, localinfrastructure-based networks (e.g., wired and/or wireless local areanetworks), off-site networks such as metropolitan area networks andother wide area networks, global area networks, etc. A transmitter 852and receiver 854 are shown in FIG. 8 to depict the representativecomputing system's structural ability to transmit and/or receive data inany of these or other communication methodologies. The transmitter 852and/or receiver 854 devices may be stand-alone components, may beintegrated as a transceiver(s), may be integrated into oralready-existing part of other communication devices such as the networkinterface 846, etc.

Where the computing system 800 represents a mail server or othermessaging server where messages are received for deliver to the userdevice, information may be transmitted via the transmitter 852. Clientand server devices may include a transmitter 852 and/or receiver 854,which can be provided as discrete components or as part of atransceiver, and can be provided as stand-alone devices or integratedwith another component such as the network interface 846. Communicationbetween user devices and servers may utilize both of their transmitters852 and receivers 854. As computing system 800 can be implemented at auser device or server, block 856 represents the user device or serverthat is communicating with the computing system 800 that represents theother of the two.

Where the representative computing system 800 represents a user device,the memory 812 and/or storage 834, 840, 844, 848 may be used to storeprograms and data used in connection with the user device's analysis andad creation techniques previously described. The client devicestorage/memory 860 represents what may be stored in memory 812, storage834, 840, 844, 848, and/or other data retention devices. Therepresentative client device storage/memory 860 may include an operatingsystem (not shown), and processor-implemented functions represented byfunctional modules. For example, modules previously described include ananalyzer module 862, advertisement creation module 864, advertisementplacement module 866, inference algorithm(s) 868, compare module 870,and data 872. The data 872 may include reference information 874 thatcan be compared using compare module 870 to incoming email informationto determine whether the incoming email meets the criteria for creatingan advertisement therefrom.

Where the representative computing system 800 represents a server (e.g.a mail server), the memory 812 and/or storage 834, 840, 844, 848 may beused to store programs and data used in connection with the server'sfunctional operations previously described. The server storage/memory880 represents what may be stored in memory 812, storage 834, 840, 844,848, databases, and/or other data retention devices. The representativeserver storage/memory 880 may include an operating system (not shown),one or more of the modules 862-870, data 872, etc. The determination ofwhich modules are provided at the client device storage/memory 860 orserver storage/memory 880 depends on where the respectiveresponsibilities are to be placed.

As previously noted, the representative computing system 800 in FIG. 8is provided for purposes of example, as any computing device havingprocessing and communication capabilities can carry out the functionsdescribed herein using the teachings described herein. It should also benoted that the sequence of various functions in the flow diagrams orother diagrams depicted herein need not be in the representative orderthat is depicted unless otherwise noted.

As demonstrated in the foregoing examples, embodiments described hereinfacilitate the creation and presentation of electronic advertisementsbased on received email and other electronic communications. In variousembodiments, methods are described that can be executed on a computingdevice, such as by providing software modules that are executable via aprocessor (which includes a physical processor and/or logical processor,controller, etc.). The methods may also be stored on computer-readablemedia that can be accessed and read by the processor and/or circuitrythat prepares the information for processing via the processor. Forexample, the computer-readable media may include any digital storagetechnology, including memory 812, storage 834, 840, 844, 848, any othervolatile or non-volatile digital storage, etc. Having instructionsstored on a computer-readable media as described herein isdistinguishable from having instructions propagated or transmitted, asthe propagation transfers the instructions, versus stores theinstructions such as can occur with a computer-readable medium havinginstructions stored thereon. Therefore, unless otherwise noted,references to computer-readable media/medium having instructions storedthereon, in this or an analogous form, references tangible media onwhich data may be stored or retained.

Although the subject matter has been described in language specific tostructural features and/or methodological acts, it is to be understoodthat the subject matter defined in the appended claims is notnecessarily limited to the specific features or acts described above.Rather, the specific features and acts described above are disclosed asrepresentative forms of implementing the claims.

1. Computer-readable media having instructions stored thereon which areexecutable by a computer system for performing: determining that areceived electronic communication includes advertisement information;identifying one or more elements of the electronic communication thatmay be used in an electronic advertisement; and creating the electronicadvertisement using at least the identified one or more elements of theelectronic communication.
 2. The computer-readable media of claim 1,wherein the electronic communication comprises electronic mail (email).3. The computer-readable media of claim 2, further comprising deletingthe received electronic communication in connection with the creation ofthe electronic advertisement.
 4. The computer-readable media of claim 1,wherein determining that the electronic communication includesadvertisement information comprises parsing information from theelectronic communication, and analyzing the parsed information toidentify data that expressly indicating that the electroniccommunication includes the advertisement information.
 5. Thecomputer-readable media of claim 4, wherein identifying data thatexpressly indicating that the electronic communication includes theadvertisement information comprises identifying at least some of thedata in a header of the electronic communication.
 6. Thecomputer-readable media of claim 4, wherein identifying data thatexpressly indicating that the electronic communication includes theadvertisement information comprises identifying at least some of thedata in a dedicated multipurpose internet mail extensions (MIME) type.7. The computer-readable media of claim 4, wherein identifying data thatexpressly indicating that the electronic communication includes theadvertisement information comprises identifying at least some of thedata in a body of the electronic communication using at least one datatag.
 8. The computer-readable media of claim 1, wherein determining thatthe electronic communication includes advertisement informationcomprises parsing information from the electronic communication,analyzing the parsed information, and inferring from the parsedinformation that the electronic communication includes the advertisementinformation.
 9. The computer-readable media of claim 8, whereininferring from the parsed information comprises comparing storedreference information indicative of a solicitation to informationprovided in the electronic communication.
 10. The computer-readablemedia of claim 1, further comprising providing a link to the electroniccommunication from the created electronic advertisement.
 11. Anapparatus comprising: a receiver configured to receive an electronicmessage addressed to a targeted recipient; an analyzer module configuredto receive the electronic message and to determine whether theelectronic message communicates information that can be formulated intoan electronic advertisement; and an advertisement creation moduleconfigured to receive the information and to create the electronicadvertisement using at least the information, if the electronic messageincluded the information.
 12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein thereceiver, the analyzer module, and the advertisement creation module areimplemented at a user device of the targeted recipient, and furthercomprising an advertisement placement module configured to cause theelectronic advertisement to be presented via the user device.
 13. Theapparatus of claim 11, wherein the receiver, the analyzer module and theadvertisement creation module are implemented at a message server in acommunication path between a source of the electronic message and a userdevice of the targeted recipient.
 14. The apparatus of claim 13, furthercomprising a transmitter configured to transmit the electronicadvertisement to the user device.
 15. The apparatus of claim 13, furthercomprising a transmitter configured to transmit the electronicadvertisement to an advertisement platform for ultimate presentation atthe user device.
 16. A computer-implemented method comprising: receivingvia a receiver an electronic mail (email) addressed for a targeteddevice; analyzing at least some of the data in the email using aprocessor to determine whether the email includes data expresslyindicating that it is an advertising email that includes advertisinginformation; parsing advertising content from the email using theprocessor, if the email is determined to be an advertising email;creating an electronic advertisement using the processor and at leastthe advertising content from the email; and facilitating presentation ofthe created electronic advertisement on the targeted device.
 17. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 16, wherein receiving an emailcomprises receiving the email at the targeted device, wherein thetargeted device receives the email, analyzes the at least some of thedata, parses the advertising content from the email, creates theelectronic advertisement, and enables the created electronicadvertisement to be at least visually displayed at the targeted device.18. The computer-implemented method of claim 16, wherein receiving anemail comprises receiving the email at a mail server of the targeteddevice, wherein the mail server performs the analyzing, parsing andcreating, and wherein facilitating presentation of the createdelectronic advertisement comprises transmitting the electronicadvertisement to an address of the targeted device for presentation. 19.The computer-implemented method of claim 18, further comprising sendingthe advertising information from the mail server to an advertisementserver to facilitate the creation of the electronic advertisement, andthe presentation of the created electronic advertisement on the targeteddevice.
 20. The computer-implemented method of claim 18, furthercomprising sending the created electronic advertisement to anadvertisement server to facilitate the presentation of the createdelectronic advertisement on the targeted device.